At a little before 11:15 on the East Coast Sunday
night, the unfathomable happened.

Stony Brook, a team with a baker’s dozen years of
experience playing Division I college baseball, finished off
LSU, a program with six national titles and 15 College World
Series trips, to earn a spot in Omaha for this year’s College
World Series.

Stony Brook, from the America East Conference,
which is rated No. 25 of 32 Division I leagues in terms of
strength, had beaten LSU, from the all-powerful SEC, always
among the best baseball conferences in the land.

Stony Brook, from the north shore of Long Island,
had claimed a spot in Omaha by winning a Regional hosted by
Miami, with four national titles and 23 CWS trips, and by
beating the Tigers two out of three in the Super Regionals
before record crowds at Alex Box Stadium, where one game’s crowd
was more than the Seawolves had played in front of during their
57 regular-season games combined.

The thought of Stony Brook playing in the College
World Series is starting to sink in, not only in the college
baseball world, but also among the rest of an underdog-loving
America – the Seawolves, normally a score-only if best, were
featured in today’s New York Times and even on the
Wall Street Journal’s website.

It’s a thought that shocks most, which is
appropriate considering the team’s “Shock the World” mantra. But
not everyone.

“If you asked me what my reaction is, I’m not
shocked,” said Albany coach Jon Mueller, whose Great Danes
handed the Seawolves one of their 13 losses in a magical 52-win
season so far. “I know what they’re capable of. This has been
building for a long time.”

Stony Brook was a Division III school guided by
Matt Senk until making the transition to Division II in 1995 and
to Division I in 2000. Senk, who’s gone 623-389-3 in 22 years at
the school 60 miles east of the Big Apple, led the Seawolves to
three NCAA Regionals since 2004, barely missing last year when
they were upset in the America East tournament and finished with
42 wins.

That left the Seawolves hungry for more. And
believing they could do more. Much, much more.

In a January interview with
CollegeBaseballInsider.com, star center fielder Travis Jankowski
said: “We’re
definitely not going to be satisfied with just a conference
championship. I think we’d like to make it to the Super
Regionals at least. One win in the regionals two years ago was
nice, but I think we’re trying to win a regional this year and
advance as far as possible.”

In another preseason
interview with CBI, star third baseman Willie Carmona said: “I
want the whole world to know who Stony Brook is. Beat a big
team, upset people and make it to a Super Regional, maybe the
College World Series.”

Let’s see… Check,
check, check and check. The “whole world” box is still open,
although Carmona will settle for a check in the college baseball
world box.

Holy Cross is one of
the few teams to have success against the Seawolves, sweeping a
home doubleheader 3-1 and 5-3. Crusaders coach Greg DiCenzo said
Monday morning that outside of Texas A&M, Stony Brook was the
most balanced team he has seen in some time.

“They are an extremely
well-coached team where each player recognizes their individual
skill-sets,” DiCenzo said. “They rarely try to do more than they
are capable of, and subsequently, always put themselves in a
position to win games in the late innings. They handle the
baseball very well and compete as well as any team I have seen
in the box – tough outs up and down their lineup.

“Needless to say, their success provides every
college baseball team in the nation a chance to believe.”

Believe it. A team
from the Northeast with seven guys selected in the 2012 Major
League Draft – highlighted by Jankowski, the player of the year
in the prestigious Cape Cod summer league who was taken at No.
44 by San Diego – is headed to Omaha.

A school whose alumni
include an Oscar winner (Mark Bridges for costume design for
The Artist), a Pulitzer Prize winner (Scott Higham), a
Grammy Award winner (Steven Mackey), the first American female
astronaut (Patricia S. Cowings) and a Major League closer (Joe
Nathan), will now represent the little guy in playing for
college baseball’s national title.

“It’s great for
Northeast baseball and our league,” Maine head coach Steve
Trimper said late Sunday night. “What an unbelievable run. That
team has a lot of great players, and they deserve what they
earned.”

Added Mueller: “It
does wonders for Northeast baseball. Wherever it’s cold and
windy and rainy, it sends a message that hard work and grinding
it out can get it done.”

It’s a message of inspiration for all of us: The
unfathomable can become reality.